NUDE MASAHIKO MARUYAMA – SS 2014 – Art Brut Collection

For a brand that so consciously flies under the radar in Japanese fashion, NUDE:MM is actually one of Tokyo’s worst kept secrets with an impressive selection of stockists worldwide and a cult following that spans the Shinjuku street fashion orientated who buy it at Kawano and pair it with Roen as well as the more artistically inclined who pick it up at Loveless in Aoyama. In short, it is an unspoken staple of many wardrobes giving people easy neutral layers to work with that have a powerful de-gendering aspect upon closer examination. However, this season the mainline has been added to with a full collection from the separate ‘NUDE:PR-y’ line, a project that has been building for some time, and that now has flourished to be the talking point of the collection.

Don’t worry, the gender neutral austerity is still alive and well as you shall see below, but as an antidote to the regurgitation of the same colors and cuts that so many designers are scared to break out from, it is a very welcome change of pace.

The first half of the collection we are looking at is the NUDE:PR-y line, a wonderful celebration of outsider art from PR-y which you can read more about here. It is a program which helps those differently abled to flourish in the art world. Beyond the goal of using art as a form of therapy, the work produced is as raw as the French name would have you expect, but more accurately for this project, naive, deconstructionist and a fitting ally for NUDE:MM’s rejection of gender and societal norms in fashion. The world of art brut rarely turns up directly in fashion, and rarer still in wearable fashion, so it is no surprise that NUDE:MM has tempered the output of the program to a selection of prints and textiles which he then has used with his customarily shrewd patterns.

The result has a lightness suitable for the summer season and a sense of story, artistry and poetry lacking from brands I would otherwise describe as artisanal.

This design is probably my favorite, the pattern ripe to play as heavily or as lightly as you want.

Beyond the PR-y collaboration collection there is also the mainline to enjoy:

The shoes are always a pleasure with NUDE:MM, this season’s layered leather options looking strong, but surprisingly heavy for the summer.